If it is a public server you are going to get overwhelmed with background noise fast. IMO it is better to either rate limit ping (with ufw or iptables) or monitor your network traffic with a tool such as snort. Yes there is a learning curve with snort, but the advantage is that it will filter through all the background traffic and alert you to the traffic you should worry about. An alternate , light weight solution would be psad. I have a write up on psad on my web page - bodhizazen.net/Tutorials/psad
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bodhi.zazenJan 8 '12 at 17:41